This week’s ‘Rising Star’ is certainly one of the youngest we have ever encountered because Ieuan Hood is only nine years old – but already a Welsh and British champion in the tough sport of weight-lifting.
 
Ieuan is a pupil at Milford Haven Junior School, whose head teacher Lyn Rees has already shared Ieuan’s success with the rest of his young students – and rightly praised his commitment at such an early age as he trains every week night.
 

Started in Steve’s converted garden shed

 
Ieuan is coached by Steve James, who has done so much good work in bringing the sport back to Milford Haven, and occasionally by Simon Roach at the Strength Academy Wales in Haverfordwest. He started out as an eager eight year old under Steve’s watchful eye, alongside his cousins Callum and Jake James, who had already made a start and encouraged him to try it out.
 
So he joined them in the converted shed at the bottom of Steve’s garden and took to it straight away. At first Steve had him learning the techniques of ‘Clean & Jerk’ and ‘Snatch’ with just a bar and no weights attached so that skill levels were built up without any real pressure as the component parts of each discipline were practised through and through.
 

Care taken not to rush young lifters

 
Weights are added as the techniques improve, but increases are always small and no young lifters are pushed too hard because they need time to master their skills without any danger of injury because of being pushed too hard.
 
For the uninitiated, the ‘Clean & Jerk’ demands that the lifter gets the bar up to chest level cleanly, maintains control there and then jerks the bar aloft, with arms locked at the elbow, until the three judges tell him to put the bar down. At least two of them have to signal that it is a ‘good’ lift for the weight lifted to be recorded.
 
The ‘Snatch’ sees the bar lifted straight up to the arms locked at the elbow stage, in one continuous movement, so perhaps needs more attention to detail for youngsters just setting out.
 

Warm-ups sound complicated but are good fun

 
Ieuan would say that Steve is very patient as they practice the different lifts on alternate evenings after they go through a warm up that includes ‘Captain Hook’ stretches, long split pushes. ‘Buddhist monks’ and using a stick to replicate weights, with the knees pulled in tightly.
 
It all sounds very elaborate but Ieuan assures it soon warms them up.
“It is hard work but we have good fun,” he said with a chuckle, “but Steve never lets us mess around because we have to take care with safety.”
 
From there it is straight on to bar work and as Ieuan has improved so the intensity increases slightly. For example, he currently works on a system of three sets of three lifts in a 45-minute training period – and once he copes with the comfortably will be moving up to five sets of five lifts by gradual degrees.
 

Successful start in SAW competition

 
Ieuan set out in competitive weight lifting when he took part in the Welsh Junior Championships organised by Simon Roach at SAW. He was entered in the 62kgs class with the idea that it would be good to give him experience – but he lifted 30kgs in the ‘Clean & Jerk’ and 25 Kgs in the ‘Snatch’ to take the gold medal, much to Steve’s pleasure at such a mature performance.
 
This success qualified him for the British Championships, which took place in Derbyshire, and on that occasion he competed against some very experienced lifters from all over the UK in the 69kgs class. He had travelled up over night and says that he wasn’t very nervous – and clearly got things right as he improved his ‘Clean & Jerk’ to 33kgs and lifted 25Kgs again in the ‘Snatch’, and was rightly thrilled to come out on top again”
 

Slight hiccups on the way

 
The only hiccup was the fact that the announcer had never heard of the name ‘Ieuan’ before and kept mispronouncing his name throughout his series of lifts!
 
He has also had to learn how to cope with set-backs en route to success, like the time in a training session where he was practising his ‘Clean & Jerk’ and allowed himself to get too much up on his toes. As he felt himself about to over-balance he dropped the bar, tried to stop it clanging on to the floor and got his thumb trapped underneath it.
 
“It hurt a bit,” admitted Ieuan, “ but wasn’t too bad so I just carried on, after Steve had told me in future I just let the bar fall and keep well away from it!”
 

Family matters

 
That Ieuan should be so involved in his sport is perhaps only natural because his dad Paul is a well known fast bowler with Johnston CC and mum Lindsey used to weight-lift as a teenager and won her first competition before coming third in the Welsh Championships. His granddad, Alan Wonnacott, is another major influence as he often takes Ieuan to his practice sessions, and is understandably proud of Ieuan’s achievements.
 
Lindsey was up in Derbyshire when Ieuan won his British title, as were coach Steve James and his wife Lisa, who doubles up as Ieuan’s auntie.
 

Weight-lifting heroes

 
As well as his regular training sessions with Steve, Ieuan also visits the Strength Academy Wales to get extra tuition from Owain Rowlands and Simon Roach, and he has also met up there with Gareth Evans, a Welsh senior champion, and Darius Jokarzadeh, a 6’7” giant who just missed out on a Commonwealth Games medal.
“He’s immense,” says Ieuan, with awe in his voice, “and I would love to do as well as he has.”
 
The sessions with Steve, Simon and Owain have clearly paid off because on one recent occasion he pushed his ‘Clean & Jerk’ personal best to 40Kgs and is now looking to achieve that weight on a regular basis, rather than as a one-off.
 

And finally? . . .

 
So what of the future for this talented young weight lifter? Ieuan is already looking ahead to next year’s Welsh Championships and then the British finals after that. His targets are 45Kgs and 33Kgs for the respective sections of ‘Clean & Jerk’ and ‘Snatch’.
 
Although he is only nine years old, Ieuan has already shown great commitment and a maturity beyond his years. Throw in the ability to listen to good advice and total family support and there is no doubt that Ieuan Hood is already on the road to success – with more Welsh and British weight lifting titles to come in the future!